Michael Landon's daughter:

My father guides me from beyond the grave

Michael Landon's daughter says her beloved dad is guiding her from beyond the grave -- and she is fulfilling his deathbed wish of helping families throughout America.

"My dad and I always had a special bond -- and a sense of communication that went far beyond the ordinary, defying explanation," revealed 43-year-old Cheryl in an exclusive ENQUIRER interview.

"It continues even to this day as he still guides me from heaven."

Cheryl -- who travels the country lecturing on issues ranging from ecology to family problems -- uses film clips from his "Little House" series to illustrate her points.

The eldest daughter of Landon's nine children, Cheryl developed a very special telepathic bond with the "Highway to Heaven" star when he saved her life following a car crash.

And after Michael's death from pancreatic cancer in July 1991, Cheryl wrote a book about her devoted dad.

But when Cheryl was asked to do TV shows to promote it, she admits, "I was terrified."

Her late dad came to the rescue.

"I was home alone and I prayed," Cheryl revealed. "I told my dad I was scared. I was awake when he came to me. I heard his voice clearly."

Michael told her to be confident, and he promised, "Before you do that first show, I am going to leave you a long-stemmed red rose."

A month later, a very nervous Cheryl was in a New York hotel room getting ready to appear on "Geraldo." Suddenly, she recalled, "I heard my dad speaking to me again.

"'Cheryl,' he said, 'I want you to go to the fountain in Central Park.'

"I'd never been in New York's Central Park before but when I got there, I seemed to know exactly where to go. I walked to the fountain. I looked down -- and saw a long-stemmed red rose! Then I looked up and saw an inscription on the fountain.

"I was standing at the fountain of Michael the Archangel!

"I cried without shame and clutched the rose -- affirmation that my father was still with me and guiding me."

Cheryl went on the show with a renewed confidence, started lecturing and began the groundwork for The Landon Center, which will use educational resources and a positive-thinking philosophy to improve people's lives.

"Dad was always there for me," Cheryl disclosed. And she'll never forget how he saved her life when she was 19. A drunken driver had smashed into a Volkswagen Beetle in which she was a passenger. The bone-crushing 80 m.p.h. impact killed the other three passengers.

"The doctors told Dad I would not survive and that he was wasting his time talking to me because I was in a deep coma," she recalled. "But Dad would not give up. For three days he kept a vigil beside my bed. 'Fight, baby, fight,' he repeated over and over.

"I remember aching to go toward a light, a brillant white light ahead of me. And I would have gone, too, I know it. But there was that sound pulling me back: 'Fight, baby, fight. Fight, baby, fight.'

"When I regained consciousness after three days, they called it a miracle. My father had willed me to live.

"Much later, at the end of his life, I found out that Dad had made a promise to God while I was in a coma. He said, 'I promised God that if He would let Cheryl live, I would do something to make the world a little better.'

"Twenty-one years after Dad made his promise, I was at his bedside. The doctors had told him he had only three weeks to live. He said:

"'You know, Cheryl, I cannot die. Society is destroying itself. Our children are in trouble. I can make a difference.'

"Right then and there I made a commitment to my dad -- that I would carry on his message of love and concern for society. I vowed I would do what I could to help heal our world."

This article was published by The National Enquirer on October 8, 1996 and was written by Stan Oliver.